1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling an incoming melody and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling an incoming melody wherein, when a caller requests a voice call and designates a receiver for whom the voice call is intended, a receiver's telephone terminal outputs a unique incoming melody corresponding to the receiver that the caller designates, so that the corresponding receiver can check the voice call request.
2. Related Art
A method of controlling an incoming melody in the current telephone service can be generally divided into a method of using a CID (caller ID) and a method of outputting a designated incoming melody.
First, in the method of outputting the designated incoming melody, a user of a telephone terminal stores a specific incoming melody into the telephone terminal using melody input means, and when a call request signal is received from the caller's telephone terminal, the specific incoming melody inputted by the user is outputted.
That is, the user of the receiver's telephone terminal sets the specific incoming melody through the melody input means, and when the call request signal is received from an opposite or counterpart terminal, the receiver's telephone terminal checks whether or not the user set the specific incoming melody so that, if the specific incoming melody is not set, a default melody is outputted, whereas if the specific incoming melody is set, the set specific incoming melody is outputted.
However, in the method of outputting the designated incoming melody, the user simply designates one melody as an incoming one, and when the call request signal is received from any caller, the same incoming melody is outputted, so that there is a problem in that the receiver cannot check the caller's information until the voice call starts.
Further, in the method of using the CID, the user of the telephone terminal designates an incoming melody according to the caller's CID, and sets the incoming melody to the telephone terminal. When the call request signal is received from the caller's telephone terminal, the incoming melody is retrieved according to the caller's CID so as to output the corresponding incoming melody.
However, in the method of using the CID, the incoming melody is outputted according to the CID that the receiver designates, so that the receiver can check the caller's information, but there is a problem in that the user of the telephone terminal has to apply for a paid CID service.
Further, in the method of using the CID, it is troublesome to set each incoming melody in correspondence to the caller's CID, and when the call request signal transmitted from the caller's telephone terminal has a CID that does not set the incoming melody, an incoming melody service that makes the incoming melody different according to the caller's telephone terminal cannot be provided.
Further, in the method of using the CID, the receiver can check the caller's information through the incoming melody, but cannot check the exact incoming information indicating that the caller wants to make a voice call.
That is, there is a problem in that, although the caller requests a voice call to a receiver ‘A’, when a receiver ‘B’ is adjacent to the receiver's telephone terminal, the receiver ‘B’ will first take the voice call with the caller through the telephone terminal, and then switch back to the receiver ‘A’.
The following patents are considered to be generally pertinent to the present invention, but are burdened by the disadvantages set forth above: U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,040 to Zimmerman, entitled METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING INCOMING CALLS ON A COMMUNICATION UNIT, issued on Jun. 1, 2004; U.S. Pat. No. 6,636,602 to Vlacancich, entitled METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING, issued on Oct. 21, 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 6,621,903 to Oda, entitled PORTABLE TELEPHONE SET AND METHOD FOR INPUTTING SAID INCOMING CALL REPORTING MELODY, issued on Sep. 16, 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 6,597,279 to Haraguchi, entitled PORTABLE INFORMATION TERMINAL AND METHOD OF SETTING THE SAME, issued on Jul. 22, 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,897 to Millrod, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ANSWERING A TELEPHONE WITH SPEECH, issued on Nov. 19, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,337,972 to Jones et al., entitled MELODIC ALERTS FOR COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE, issued on Jan. 8, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,132 to Harada et al., entitled RINGING-TONE CONTROL DEVICE FOR TELEPHONE SET, USING AUDIO SIGNAL SENT BY CALLER, issued on Oct. 2, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,227 to Oba, entitled INCOMING CALL REPORTING TOY, issued on Feb. 20, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,587 to Armanto et al., entitled PROGRAMMING OF A TELEPHONE'S RINGING TONE, issued on Jul. 25, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,599 to Sasano et al., entitled COMMUNICATION TERMINAL APPARATUS AND ITS CONTROL METHOD WITH PARTY IDENTIFICATION AND NOTIFICATION FEATURES, issued on Jun. 15, 1993; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,994 to Sasano etal., entitled COMMUNICATION TERMINAL APPARATUS AND CONTROL METHOD WITH PARTY IDENTIFICATION FEATURES, issued on Apr. 6, 1993.